Sailing To Survive

Tom called at seven and said that he would be home in thirty minutes and Carla put dinner in the oven while we poured our second glass of wine. Tom actually got home ten minutes before dinner was ready and he apologized for being late. He washed up and took his coat and tie off before joining us for a glass of wine. I thought that this might be the best moment so I stood up. Everyone looked at me.

"I have something I need to do with all of you here. Please humor me. Ray and Tom, you are the two most important men in Emily's life. May I have your permission to ask her to marry me?"

Three people roared with laughter. The smallest woman in the room broke into tears. It took a moment before either of the men could gain control of themselves enough to say yes. Then I turned to Emily and got down on my knee before taking her left hand. It was shaking badly.

"Emily, I never thought that a woman like you existed but you do and I don't want, no; I can't let you out of my life. I love you, want you, need you and want to share our lives together. Will you marry me?"

Her voice was breaking as she said the most romantic response I could have wanted. "Yes, my Captain. I will marry you and make your life miserable beyond your wildest dreams." I slipped the engagement on her finger and her eyes got wide. "Where did you get a ring? You haven't been out of my sight since we met."

"Emily, I told you about my background and that my parents died when I was sixteen. The only possession I have ever had that was valuable was this ring. It was my mother's engagement ring. I couldn't buy anything else that was this valuable to me. I know that it might not be proper, but I want you to have it. We will get you your own ring if you want; but this I give to you so you know where my heart is."

She got down on her knees and said, "This is perfect and I will always wear it proudly. I love you so much." We then kissed before our present and future family surrounded us with hugs and kisses. Then Carla announced that dinner was ready.

Dinner was joyous and also teasing. The subject of the dowry came up and Ray upped it to six cows. Emily threatened everyone with their lives if they didn't put that idea away for good. We finally broke it up at ten o'clock.

As we were getting ready to go, Tom said, "I have been debating saying anything especially after your surprise earlier but I think you ought to know something, Stuart and Emily. The reason I was late was because I was interviewing a guy in the hospital. He had been beaten up pretty badly early this morning. It was Jefferson Martin, the senator's kid. Two guys approached him and asked about the boat that he saw on the river. He told them to fuck off. They then started a thorough beating and he told them what he knew about you, which wasn't very much. All he could tell them that it was a dirty work boat with no name and nothing special to describe it. But he did tell them about the boat yard where you got the boat. So you were right, there may be some serious people looking for you and they now know that you are on a boat."

"Thanks for telling me. It doesn't surprise me. Emily, this could get serious; would you rather stay here?"

"Hell no. I've got your back for the rest of your life, buddy. Tom, do you have some guns we can take?"

"Not here but Stuart says that he has some on the boat."

"Why didn't you tell me that, prick?"

"Because I didn't want you to use me for target practice. You will know where they are in the morning and know how to use them by noon. Tom, what do you think might happen next?"

"My best guess is that they will drive down to the boat yard and talk to the people there. They won't be able to tell them much except that you came this way. The drive down will take a day down and a day back. So they might be back here tomorrow. Then they will have to find where you have been staying and they don't know if you stayed or left right away. They might try to locate Emily but we are the only people who know where she is, so that will be a dead end. I guess that you will have a two day head start if you leave in the morning. But they won't know that. They might fly or drive down river to Memphis or some place in hopes of catching you there. Other than that, I don't have much of an idea. I'll keep my ears open and have the manager where you are now call me if people ask about you. I'll call Emily's phone and leave a message when I find anything out. Check your voice mail, Em, whenever you get a signal."

"Yes, sir. I will."

He and Carla gave us each hugs and kisses and Ray drove us back to the boat. He also told us to call him when we got to Memphis. If he was still there, he would pass on anything else that came up. We agreed and then we hugged him and got back on the boat.

"Emily, we are ready to leave now. Do you think we can do the river at night to get more of a head start? Everything I know about the river says to not go out at night because of the shifting sand bars."

She went to the computer and logged in. A moment later, she was scanning the map down river. "The only problems that were previously reported for the first one hundred miles are here at the seventy five mile point. This part is pretty straight and appears to be deep enough and without obstructions. I'd say, let's go. We can find a place to stop above the seventy five mile point and wait until morning to be sure. I'll monitor the radar and sonar to be sure."

That was all I needed to hear. A few minutes later, the engine and generator were running and I was bringing in the mooring lines. I turned on the running lights and the bow headlight to keep the channel in sight and we began our adventure a little earlier than we expected. There was also my special place that we could use if needed but that wouldn't be for at least a couple of days at the earliest.

When we got to the river, there was a long barge moving passed us on the west side of the river. For now, I decided to follow in his wake until we got comfortable with the river. Emily made a pot of coffee and brought me a cup while she got her instruments fired up and started watching the monitors. An hour later, Emily said that everything seemed to be working and that the river ahead seemed to be clear. I pulled toward the middle of the river and increased speed to pass the barge with plenty of water between us. As we passed the steering station, he gave me a toot and I gave him two in return. When I was a mile passed him, I pulled back to the west side of the river and slowed down slightly but was still faster than the barge had been going. I settled in to the monotony of navigating the river with only a sliver of moonlight to show the way.

I kept losing the radio stations that I was able to receive and finally shut it off and put a cd in the player and was joined by the cast of Aida for the next several hours. Emily came up every thirty minutes or so asking if I wanted more coffee or something to eat. My answer each time was a kiss and the words telling her to go get some sleep. Finally around two thirty, she nodded and said she would if I promised to call and wake her if I needed her. I promised. But there was no reason to wake her so I didn't.

At four in the morning, I felt a change in the river and realized that I must be in area she had pointed out at the seventy five miles mark. I could see nothing to indicate there was a problem but I slowed my speed anyway just to be sure. A few minutes later, Emily came up rubbing her eyes. "I felt the boat change. Is there something wrong?"

"No, I don't think so. I think we are in that seventy mile spot. I just slowed down to be safe."

"Oh, I'll go check the GPS." She went back down and returned a few minutes later. "Yes, we are almost passed it. There is a little town with a dock coming up. Do you want to stop and stretch and maybe have breakfast? I had a nap; you haven't had a break."

"That might be a good idea. We might even stay for a couple of hours and get more sleep. I think we are safe for now. Then we can push on for the rest of the day."

"I like that idea. By the way, I didn't really tell you how surprised but thrilled I was when you asked me to marry you. I have been dreaming about that moment but I was totally unprepared for last night. It was really beautiful and meaningful to do that with my family around. Thank you. I want to be a great wife for you."

'You are already great for me. Don't try to change anything."

"I won't." She went back down and yelled up at me that we should be at that town in thirty minutes. I checked the clock and made a mental note of when to expect it to appear. I also noticed that the eastern sky was beginning to lighten. In thirty minutes, we would be able to dock without much problem.

I began to see barges lined up along the bank. Each one seemed to be tied off. I wondered if there was a problem downriver and turned on the radio again. After the weather, they gave a river report but mentioned nothing about a problem. I called Emily to come up as we were getting close to the town. She came up and used the binoculars to scan the bank.

"The barges seem to stop shortly before the dock by the town. I don't know what is going on though; I can't see anything else." She put her hand on my shoulder as I passed the last barge and moved toward the dock just below the town.

We tied off and shut the engine down before we set off up the hill to the town. It felt good to stand and stretch and then walk to get the circulation going again. We went into town and found a café open for early breakfast and went in. The smells of fresh bread and coffee were exhilarating. We took a table near the window and the waitress automatically brought coffee over. I guess the locals only drank coffee.

As Emily eyed the menu, I asked the middle aged woman, "What is going on with all the barges parked along the bank north of here?"

"Yeah; it is ruining our business during the busy season. They are full of winter wheat going down to a mill. But the mill shut down for some emergency repairs and all the pilots could do was park the barges until they start running again. Instead of stopping, they just turn around and go back home. When the recreational boaters come by, they don't stop because they think there is some big event going on. We have lost about half our business. Maybe it will pick up when they get running again. Someone will have to come get the barges."

"I understand. So what do the locals here like best on the menu?"

"For breakfast, they like big meals like the chicken fried steak, eggs, hash browns, gravy and biscuits. That will keep you going until dinner if you need."

Emily said, "Unless they have a heart attack at lunch time."

The waitress replied with a grin, "They will die well fed and happy though."

I simply said, "If it is good enough for a condemned man; it is good enough for me. Emily?"

'"I'll have the same. You aren't going anywhere without me, my Captain."

"Let me guess, you two just got engaged."

Emily asked, "How did you know that?"

"If you were just starting to date, you would have ordered French toast or something romantic; if you were old married folks, you would want him to go and leave you the hell alone for awhile."

We all laughed as she went to put our order in. As we waited, Emily took out her phone and was about to call Tom." "Don't; I just had a thought. If they picked up that you were with me and stayed with me after St. Louis, they might be tracking your phone. Shut it off and put it away. We'll get a throw-away phone after breakfast. You can use that to call in. I'm not willing to take too many chances with whoever these guys are."

"I guess that is another part of my education that I need to learn. Can they really track a cell phone?"

"Sure. If you are calling, they can locate you in less than a minute. If you aren't calling, they can trace where you have called from and follow where you have been and estimate where you are going. And you may have an app on there that has its own tracking device that they can get into. Maybe not here, but when we get to Memphis, if you turned it on you would be deluged by ads for Memphis businesses. The only way they can trace a throw away phone is if they know the number. To get that, they would have to tap your dad, Carla or Tom's phone. Then they would know where we have been but not where we are. We may get two or three and get rid of them as they run out of time."

"I guess that I thought that only the government could do things like that."

"In theory, that is right but some of these corporate interests are owed a lot of favors from important people in the government. Normally, I wouldn't worry much about it but I don't know who might be looking for us."

"If they realize we are going down river, they can sit and wait for us can't they?"

"Yes. But I have a couple of surprises in store along the way. Once we get to Louisiana, there are a lot of tributaries and side channels. They can't watch all of them. I also have a place we will stop at for several days that no one knows about. That at least should make them start looking somewhere else. We'll just have to wait and see."

We ate breakfast and filled up like stuffed turkeys but it was as good as the waitress promised. Then we walked to a store and bought a prepaid cell phone with twenty five minutes on it. Emily called her dad and caught him as he was about to leave St. Louis. She told him that we had left last night and were already downriver. He appreciated the call and would let Carla and Tom know. The call lasted less than a minute but the register charged us for three minutes. When we got back to the boat, we undressed and went to bed. I was asleep in minutes and she followed shortly after that.

I woke feeling much better at ten thirty and rolled over to cuddle with Emily. Her eyes opened and she said, "I have been dreaming about you. Fuck me."

"When are you going to tell me the difference between fucking and making love?"

"When you are ready. Now fuck me." So who was I to complain? Surprisingly, neither of us lasted very long. I guess that we were both feeling more stress than we realized. I was back at the steering station and pulling back onto the river shortly after eleven. In the day light, we made pretty good speed. A couple of times, Emily asked me to slow down and move to the center of the river and back. I assumed that she saw something on the sonar and needed confirmation data. Emily came up with our lunch at one o'clock and brought a map with her. Based on our speed, it was unlikely that we would find a town with a dock to tie up to for the night. She suggested a five mile stretch that seemed to be fairly straight might be the best place to tie up to the bank or drop anchor for the night. I told her that she had a good plan and to let me know when we approached the area. She said that it would be around five o'clock when we got there. I nodded and turned on The Pearl Fishers for the afternoon. As soon as it started playing, Emily called up, "Dammit, you need to put speakers down here so I can listen too, prick."

"I love you too and we will get speakers at the next stop in a town."

"Turn the volume up." I did. It wasn't loud enough to hear from the shore but if it had been, I suspect that a number of people living along that stretch of the river would have wondered what kind of music those damn fools were playing because it sure wasn't from Nashville.

I surprised myself that I wasn't at all bored idling along the river at school zone speeds. I didn't have a deadline to meet, I had a wonderful woman as my companion, and I could free my mind to focus on the future and not the present or the past. I liked that feeling and the Pearl Fishers helped the process along.

At four thirty, we rounded one of the innumerable turns the Mississippi feels the need to carve out and I felt like we were entering the stretch of river that Emily had mentioned. "Honey, are we here?"

"Yes, we just started into it. It looks like there is an island about two miles down. Maybe that would be a good place to park for the night."

I thought and realized that an island might be perfect or not. If it was just an extension of a sand bar, it might be a trap. If it was a standalone island, then it might be perfect for the night. It all depended on the depth of water between the bank and the island. As we neared the cutoff, I slowed the speed and Emily came up to join me. I said, "Go back down and watch the water depth. If there is a shallow bar between the bank and island, call me and I'll stop and back out. If it stays fairly deep, we can go in and find a place to tie off."

She went back down and called out regularly, "Ten feet", "ten feet", "nine feet", "seven feet", "Seven feet", "nine feet".

I called down, "That's good. There is a spot right here that will work. I cut the engine and drifted a few more feet towards the bank and then reversed the engine and we stopped. I took the bow line and jumped off into two foot water and tied it to a large rock on the bank. Emily tossed me the stern line which I tied to a large tree. This spot seemed to be a popular stopping place as there were a number of places where campfires had been at one time. I climbed back into the cockpit and Emily handed me a towel. The other thing I liked was that the tree I had tied off to at the stern had several large branches hanging over and partially covered the rear deck. It would be a nice place to sit in the morning for coffee.

Emily went below and returned with a scotch for me and a glass of wine for herself. We sat on in the captain's chairs and listened to the music filtering down from the steering station. We talked idly for a few minutes before we talked about our dinner options. We settled on chicken with rice pilaf and she went below to begin dinner. I sat and reflected on our trip so far and was satisfied.

I felt the hair beginning to stand up on my neck before I realized that a sound was slowly coming our way. Then I recognized the faint woof-woof of a helicopter flying low and slow down the river. It took a minute for me to realize that there was no reason to fly low or slow in this part of the area unless they were looking for something or someone. I had an eerie feeling that we were what they were looking for. I couldn't see the helicopter from where I was so I climbed back up to the steering station. Through the trees, I could make out the shape of the bird and saw that it was an Army recon helicopter and I felt for certain that they were scanning the river for us. Fortunately, they kept on going down the middle of the river without deviating towards the island and us. I took the map back down and studied it for several minutes.

Emily came out to refill my drink and saw me looking closely at the map. "What are you looking for honey?"

"I'm trying to see if we can get past Memphis without being spotted."

"Oh, is there a problem?"

"Maybe. You heard the helicopter flying by? It was an Army reconnaissance helicopter and he was flying low and slow like he was looking for someone or something. I am afraid it might be us they are looking for. Just to be safe, we will leave early and stay close to the bank in the morning. If another one comes down, I might park us if there is cover. What I am mainly concerned about is that we could be spotted in Memphis very easily. I am hoping is that there will be a barge going through when we get there. If so, I may try to get past the city on the west side of the barge. There isn't anywhere to look from on the western side but from the east side, anyone with binoculars can see everything what passes. I am hoping we will be blocked by a barge or something."